Fiesta!

Last week was the Fiesta Universitaria for the 16th anniversary of the founding of the College. On the last day, Sunday, there was a procession, with each department dancing a traditional dance, in procession behind Saint Francis. Here are some of my favorite photos.

Here two student body officers, Jesús and Natalí, start the procession with our statue of Saint Francis.



Sarah Mechtenberg, my mom, Ann Leahy and Sister Jean Morrissey danced the pujllay, the horse dance from Sucre, with the group of College adminstrators.



The Nursing students presented a traditional harvest dance from the Altiplano called the salaque. The women dance with hats, and the men with hoes and rakes.



These are two of my favorite photos from the Education students' dance, the tobas, based on the traditions of the Amazon basin cultures. The feathers in the head-dresses were incorporated when Bolivians saw the ceremonial dress of North American Indians.






The Agronomy students danced the chacarera, a vaquero ("cowboy") dance from southern Bolivia, near Argentina.



The Veterinary students danced the quichiri, the coca harvest dance (kichiña means "to harvest coca" in Aymará). Here is (left to right) a military coca eradicator with his rifle, a cholita woman with her coca harvesting apron, a coca farmer with a paddle used to shape the coca terraces, butterflies whose caterpillars eat coca leaves, a line of red leaf-cutter ants with coca in their pincers, and a beekeeper with a bee. This was the most creative dance: the students made all of their own costumes.